Trump’s $230 Million Demand, and the Chaos Created by U.S.A.I.D. Cuts in Somalia

0:02From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Wednesday, October 22nd. Here's what we're covering.

0:14Earlier this year, the Trump administration began dramatic cuts to foreign assistance around the world. President Trump wants to shutter USAID as part of what he says is an effort to cut bureaucracy and save Americans money. And that sparked a lot of outcry. And he betrayed the literal starving children who rely on food from USAID to stave off hunger. And one of the things the administration said in response was Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, no one is going to die on my watch. No children are going to die because of these cuts. No one has died because of USAID. The people who have died as a result.

0:50And so since that time, I've been reporting from different countries that were affected to essentially try to fact check that statement. And what I found is that there are some countries where they've been able to cope without the U.S. resources, and then there are other countries where the loss of U.S. assistance has really just been catastrophic, and one of those countries is Somalia. My colleague Stephanie Nolan has covered global health for over 30 years. She says that before the cuts, the U.S. was by far the largest donor to Somalia, sending about$450 million a year in humanitarian assistance that helps support the work of aid groups on the ground.

1:30This month, the Trump administration told The Times that it's approved just under$15 million. Stephanie says the rapid withdrawal of American funding has caused chaos in Somalia's health system and forced aid groups to close down dozens of food assistance programs and community health clinics. What they chose to keep open were the centers that are like the last line of defense. So that's, for example, like emergency feeding centers for critically malnourished children. And I had the chance to spend some time in one of those in the south of Somalia. You get these little kids who are being brought in and they're limp and their eyes are huge and these really gaunt faces.

2:09And when they come in the door, they're being triaged. The very small ones who are too weak to even eat and drink, they're taking to put tubes up their noses so they can have milk run into their tummies. And, you know, it's really striking being in a ward full of kids like this because it's a big packed room with a lot of people in it and a lot of sick kids. But it's really quiet. Like, you just don't hear lots and lots of children crying because they don't have the energy to cry. I spoke to a doctor who was running one of these centers, and he said to me that, like, what's really changed in the last six months since the community health programs disappeared, along with the aid budget, is that there's just so many more kids.

2:50And when they get there, they're so much sicker. And I think the thing that's really discouraging for them is that they're aware that it doesn't have to be like this. Like Somalia is a country that has a terrible, terrible drought problem and a huge amount of instability and violence. But it was still making progress on things like immunization rates and lowering the rate of mothers who died in childbirth, lowering the rate of children who died under five. That's like really slow, hard work. and it can be reversed incredibly quickly. And so they're thinking back to this progress they were making and they're realizing that's over.

3:38Now, three updates on the Trump administration. President Trump is demanding that the Justice Department pay him$230 million as compensation for federal investigations into him, according to people familiar with the matter. He made the claims, there are two of them, through a process where people can seek damages from the government and try to reach a settlement without a lawsuit. Trump's first complaint alleges that his rights were violated during the investigation into possible connections between his 2016 campaign and Russia. The second complaint accuses the FBI of violating his privacy when agents searched Mar-a-Lago for classified documents.

4:17Both claims were filed before Trump was reelected. According to Justice Department regulations, there are two people who can sign off on any settlements like these. Both have close ties to Trump. It's the deputy attorney general, who used to be Trump's lead defense attorney, and the chief of the DOJ's civil division, who's represented several Trump aides. When asked if either would recuse themselves from weighing in on any Trump settlement, A DOJ spokesman said anyone involved would, quote, follow the guidance of career ethics officials. And when reporters asked Trump about the situation yesterday, the president admitted it is odd that he, in theory, has sway over a potential payout.

4:59It's awfully strange to make a decision where I'm paying myself. In other words, did you ever have one of those cases where you have to decide how much you're paying yourself in damages? But I was damaged very greatly, and any money that I would get, I would give to charity. Also, in a reversal, President Trump now says that he will not meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in the coming weeks. He'd said a few days ago that they would, saying they'd had a productive conversation and suggesting the two would have a summit in Hungary to discuss an end to the war in Ukraine. But now Russia has signaled it has no intention of striking a peace deal, and a Kremlin spokesman said the meeting had never been confirmed at all.

5:41Throughout his term, Trump has sometimes courted Putin, even complimenting him, and sometimes threatened him, but has yet to take any serious action to punish Russia for its ongoing attacks on Ukraine. And Trump's nominee to lead a federal watchdog agency is out, after Politico reported that he'd sent a series of racist text messages. The president had selected Paul Ingracia, a far-right lawyer and podcaster, to lead the office of special counsel. which enforces some ethics laws and safeguards whistleblowers. But yesterday, after several Republican senators signaled they wouldn't vote for him amid growing outrage over the texts, his bid collapsed.

6:22According to Politico, Ingracia's messages included saying Chinese and Indian people could not be trusted, that the federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King should be tossed into the seventh circle of hell, and, quote, I do have a Nazi streak in me from time to time. I will admit it. The Times was unable to independently verify the texts. Ingracia's lawyer told Politico they may have been manipulated or were missing context. Ingracia's failed nomination comes just a week after a separate Politico report showed that leaders of young Republican groups in multiple states regularly used racist and homophobic language in their chats, including joking about Hitler and gas chambers.

7:10Across the U.S., a new outbreak of bird flu is hitting dozens of poultry farms and threatening to drive up prices at the grocery store again. After cases dipped this summer, farmers have now reported an uptick of the disease, which has killed nearly 7 million farmed birds since the beginning of September. That includes over a million turkeys just ahead of Thanksgiving. One economist told The Times that wholesale turkey prices are already 40 percent higher than last year. Economists also expect egg prices to go up again, just like they've done in previous outbreaks. Bird flu often flares up in the fall when wild birds begin migrating south and spreading the disease.

7:53But this year, because of the government shutdown, states are navigating the surge without the kind of resources they'd normally get from the CDC and the Department of Agriculture. That's left local officials and farmers without up-to-date guidance on how to contain the disease or a clear national picture of just how bad things are. In the past few years, bird flu has not only infected poultry, but has also spread to dozens of other species, including dairy cows and people, though that risk remains low.

8:28And finally, at Yosemite National Park, base jumpers, people who parachute off of cliffs while the rest of us just get sweaty palms watching them, are going rogue under the government shutdown. Wow. Base jumping is illegal in the park due to safety concerns, but with a lot of park staff furloughed, people may be betting they just won't get caught. A rock climber who was scaling the face of El Capitan talked to the Times by cell phone while 1 ,000 feet up in the air. He said he'd seen 20 jumps off the rock face on Friday alone. He caught footage of some of them. Other videos have showed up online of the daring jumps, becoming a kind of symbol of the chaos that park employees were worried about as some of the major national parks have been left open, even without as many workers around.

9:24Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, the latest on the heist at the Louvre. You can listen to that at The New York Times or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.

9:41Thank you.